Riley knelt over Captain Grayson with a haze of panic at the back of his mind.
"Sir! Can you hear me at all?" He had seen others fall, even seen the dead, but not someone he knew well. He'd spent weeks under Captain Grayson's command. The man had mentored him.
Someone pushed him roughly aside, "Out of my way."
A doctor Riley didn't recognize assessed the Captain's wounds with a somber face.
"I do not require your help. If you have orders to carry out, I suggest you go attend to that."
Riley reluctantly walked away with a last look at Grayson. The man appeared to be breathing, but little else. Riley swallowed and hurried toward the General's house. His wounds weren't important enough to need treatment in light of the far more severe ones suffered by other men.
He paid little attention to his path as his thoughts wandered through the events of the battle. The trauma of so much death and carnage around him would catch up to him at some point, but not now. He shoved the violent images into a mental box and closed the lid to set it aside for another day.
Sighing, he continued forward, walking quickly into the nicer part of the city. He passed down a familiar street and the sound of a slamming door caught his attention. Blinking against the fatigue of battle, he looked up just in time to catch hold of Ashley throwing her arms around him.
"Riley! You're alive! Is the battle over? Are you all right? What's happening?" She pulled back and gasped at the blood on him, trying to determine how much was his, and what belonged to others.
"I'm fine. I'm on my way to the General's house. You should be inside." At the second reinforcement horn, all citizens not assigned to fight, including most of the women and children, were to move quickly to designated reinforced shelters.
"My home is one of the shelters. Father reinforced it long ago... we didn't know why he bothered, at the time." Her brow creased, wondering briefly about the fate of the real Provider.
"Then walk with me, I suppose. The city is safe for the moment... I think," Riley conceded. In truth, her presence was a balm to his wounded soul.
Sensing his brokenness, Ashley didn't want to ask too much of him. Her curiosity burned intensely below the surface, but Riley's well-being was more important than it was for her to know what was going on.
"The General's house, eh? Your importance is obviously rising, Supreme Officer Corporal Bear," She teased lightly.
The corner of his mouth tilted upward for her efforts, and she took his arm as if he were escorting her on a casual promenade around a flowered city square. They walked together in silence for a time.
The faintly rosy scent of her hair wafted up to him, and he closed his eyes to focus on that rather than the smell of blood that clung to him. How she could stand to be so close to him right now was a mystery. He had the dust and debris of the cave-in layered between sweat and blood and who knew what else.
Opening his eyes, he realized she was examining him with worry in her face.
"What is it?" He asked.
She said, turning her attention back forward in a huff, "Oh, nothing, It's just that the man I--" She stuttered, "You waltzed in front of my house covered in blood. Nothing at all to cause me any amount of concern whatsoever."
"The man you what?" The heavy fog weighing on his mind lifted slightly while he pursued this line of thought.
"Pardon?" She asked innocently.
"You said 'the man I' and then stopped. The man you what?" He pressed, causing her face to flame.
"I think you know very well what, and I refuse to speak about it. You have a terrible habit of pressing a lady for answers." She chided. "It's not gentlemanly."
"I don't recall claiming to be a gentleman." He replied.
"I suppose you didn't," She studied him with a sidelong glance.
"Regardless, I do have an educated guess as to what you were about to say," He said seriously, "And I'm rather glad you didn't say it."
"Oh?" She was taken aback but tried to quash her disappointment.
"Yes. Calling me 'the man I tolerate despite his terrible manners and off-putting personality' would have put a damper on the moment. Especially since I love you so much." Riley continued walking forward as if he were commenting on nothing more remarkable than the weather.
"You what?" Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest, but his casual tone made her wonder if he had endured some severe head trauma in battle.
"I realized earlier I could die without telling you that. What an awful thing to do. I apologize, and now I must leave you and attend to my duties." He gestured to the General's residence as they came to a stop in front of it.
Now she was sure he must have a concussion of some kind.
"You're just going to confess your love and walk away from me without waiting for a reply?" She demanded.
"Well, I didn't want to pressure you into saying something similar," He turned towards her, "Of course, we're at war and I could die at any moment; in fact, I've almost died several times today already, but you shouldn't let that impact--"
He was cut off as she jumped up to throw her arms around his neck and pull him down into an embrace. She pressed her soft, clean lips to his cracked, bloodied ones, but pain was the furthest thing from his mind.
Gathering her close, he didn't even consider how her fine dress would be marred by the stains of his uniform. The immeasurable comfort of her arms around him drove away the darker thoughts, and he sighed, pulling away before her reputation suffered any more from kissing a soldier in the dark in the middle of the road.
"I love you too," She whispered as he drew his face back.
"I know," He said with a lopsided smile, and she smacked his arm for his cheeky tone.
"Stay alive," She said by way of farewell.
"You too," His gaze turned serious and demanded the promise from her.
"I'll do my best," Ashley smiled, "Now off with you. Do your important Supreme Officer things."
He pressed a quick kiss to one of her hands, "Go home and stay there," He commanded, and she nodded.
Riley took a deep breath and turned to knock on the General's door. He was let in as The General and Prince Duncan were deep in conversation.
"Come in, Corporal," The General gestured him to take one of the chairs across from his desk, next to the prince. "I've sent for your sister as well. I was just discussing the terms of Rhone's surrender and the nature of our mutual enemy with His Royal Highness."
"I've told you, I don't know. I've spent my whole life thinking she was my mother. That... thing... must have replaced my real mother at some point, the way she disguised Mau to replace your Provider." It was uncharacteristic of Duncan to be so deeply distressed, though neither Riley nor the General had any reason to know that.
"But what is it?" Riley asked.
"As best I can gather, it's a creature from the Darkness. Or maybe it rules the Darkness. Titania had mentioned her halfling spies went silent some time ago. If you have any of them prisoner, perhaps they could be brought for questioning. Their life spans are impressive, and most are older than I am."
Duncan realized that his bargaining position was not strong as the leader of the attack which had killed many of Klain's citizens. He could only throw himself and his people at the mercy of the General.
The General gestured to a guard in the corner to order that it be done. The guard saluted and left promptly, causing the official to turn back toward Riley.
"Corporal, how long will the barrier last?" He questioned seriously.
Riley's eyes cut over to Prince Duncan, seated beside him. "Should I speak freely in front of him, sir?"
"Seeing as his mother just turned into an otherworldly nightmare and began slaughtering his men when he ordered surrender, I think it's fairly safe to do so. Young Roland assured me that once the curse was broken, there would be a strong chance for peace between the nations." The General sighed at the complicated mess that constituted war.
Duncan frowned slightly, both at hearing his son referred to as Roland and at the strong relationship he seemed to have with Klain's military leadership.
"Where is Roland, er, Derek, anyway?" Riley asked the prince next to him. "I don't suppose he and Finn got back into the city before your Queen's temper tantrum?"
"I don't think so," Duncan answered gravely. "My son surely broke the curse and is now likely headed towards Klain, directly into the clutches of the Darkness."